Gaston Means

Gaston Means (11 July 1879-12 December 1938) was an American private detective and con man who was involved in government corruption under the Harding administration and in other illicit intrigues.

Biography
Gaston Means was born on 11 July 1879 in Concord, North Carolina, a great nephew of Confederate States Army general Rufus Barringer. In 1911, Means began his career as a con man by talking his way into securing a detective job, creating fake case files that required further investigation. During World War I, Means plundered a woman's finances while acting as a private investigator, as she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to enlist Means' help in finding her husband's will. When the woman ran out of money, Means took her to a firing range and killed her, claiming that she had killed herself. During the 1920s, Means became wealthy as a result of Prohibition, acting as a middleman between Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and bootleggers such as Enoch Thompson, Arnold Rothstein, and George Remus - he collected protection money from the bootleggers and gave it to Daugherty. Means killed Daugherty's aide Jess Smith when he became a liability, as he threatened to expose the corruption of Daugherty. Means would meet his end when he was arrested for attempting to investigate the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son, offering his services as a go-between. He was later shown to be a con man, and he was imprisoned for grand larceny. He died in prison at Leavenworth in 1938.